Theme DeveloperDeveloper

So apple now has the patent for any slide gesture to unlock a device. This will most likely entail more lawsuits against anyone using a slide to unlock system on their phones or tablets. Im a fan of both but this seems like its taking it too far. Apple wasnt the 1st one to use the slide to unlock. Windows CE was the 1st to use it but never patented it.

here is the actual patent.

A device with a touch-sensitive display may be unlocked via gestures performed on the touch-sensitive display. The device is unlocked if contact with the display corresponds to a predefined gesture for unlocking the device. The device displays one or more unlock images with respect to which the predefined gesture is to be performed in order to unlock the device. The performance of the predefined gesture with respect to the unlock image may include moving the unlock image to a predefined location and/or moving the unlock image along a predefined path. The device may also display visual cues of the predefined gesture on the touch screen to remind a user of the gesture. — Patent 8,046,721

I remember when Apple tried to prevent manufactures from using pinch to zoom, it was deemed by the courts to be a gesture, and a gesture can't be patented. Just google it, it happened back in 09 that's why the OG didn't come pre-installed with pinch to zoom.

Despite ordering a preliminary injunction against sales of three Samsung smartphones on this week, a Dutch judge dismissed Apples "slide-to-unlock" patent as "not inventive," and therefore likely invalid.

Samsung's Galaxy S II, the Galaxy S and the Galaxy S Ace were found this week in a preliminary ruling to have infringed on a patent related to "flicking" or "bouncing" of photos. But that's just one patent out of the ten patents asserted by Apple against Samsung in the Netherlands trial.

Out of these unsuccessful infringement allegations, one stand-out is U.S. Patent No. 7,657,849, or the "slide-to-unlock" patent. That very same invention happens to be part of other Apple legal disputes with HTC and Motorola.

But the European counterpart of the slide-to-unlock patent has been found to be "obvious (as compared to prior art presented by Samsung) and therefore invalid," according to Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents.

Samsung showed the court a previous European Windows CE handset design, the Neonode N1m, manufactured by a Swedish company in 2005 before Dec. 23, which is date when Apple filed for the slide-to-unlock patent. In light of this evidence. the Dutch judge concluded that Apple's patent claims are "not inventive," as in this case as the Neonode N1m already implemented the entirety of Apples claimed invention, Mueller said